Santana to be new Bafana coach - website

The new face behind the coach for Bafana?

Reports surfaced late yesterday afternoon on Brazilian sports website Globoesporte that Joel Santana, the current coach of Brazil's Flamengo club, will become the new coach of Bafana Bafana.

Globoesporte is the same website that broke the news of Carlos Alberto Parreira's sudden resignation where they quoted his wife saying her husband was coming back home.

One of Santana's greatest achievements in his career as a football manager is his Campeonato Carioca titles. He is one of the few managers who succeeded in winning the competition with each one of the four big clubs of the state Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense, and Vasco da Gama.

In 2004, he successfully helped Vasco da Gama from being relegated to the second division of Campeonato Brasileiro. In 2005, he was hired by Flamengo with the same purpose.

Flamengo to leave his club on May 4
Yesterday the website cited Flamengo, vice president Kleber Leite, saying that Santana is to leave the club on May 4 and that Flamengo players already know it. Leite said that the 59-year-old Santana reported on Sunday that he was leaving.

Leite added that Parreira had earlier told him that Safa was going to make "an undeclinable proposal" to Santana. Along with Santana, coaches who were listed as possible successors were Brazilian Felipe luis Scolari, currently the Portuguese national coach, and ex-England and current Manchester City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Carlos Alberto Parreira started on January 1 2007 as the new coach of Bafana Bafana in the years leading up to the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa.

Parreira, the 64-year-old Rio de Janeiro born Brazilian, coached Brazil to their FIFA World Cup in 1994. He also coached the Brazil national team in 2006, Kuwait in 1982, United Arab Emirates in 1990 and Saudi Arabia in 1998.